Smart Energy, Groundbreaking Solutions

Binghamton is a place of — and also for — energy. For decades, we have led the way by investing in smart energy curricula, programs and research before many other universities emphasized this transdisciplinary area of study.

At the center of this long-evolving enterprise has been Distinguished Professor Stanley Whittingham, who would go on to share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Before coming to Binghamton in 1988, Whittingham was a pioneer in private industry, having invented the lithium-ion battery a decade earlier. In today’s world where almost every piece of technology, from cell phones to electric vehicles, is designed around this specific power source, the breakthrough is as foundational and life-changing Edison’s light bulb.

The University placed its biggest bet in 2017, opening the Smart Energy Building, a 114,000-square-foot nexus of interdisciplinary collaboration that is fueling future discoveries in some of the busiest labs, from Whittingham’s own team to the Center for Autonomous Solar Power, which is pioneering more efficient solar cells made of copper zinc tin sulfide, and far beyond.

Like all Binghamton breakthroughs, the benefit to student is paramount. This multidisciplinary focus on reliable and sustainable energy translates into extraordinary opportunities for students, who learn from world-class and come to understand and participate in bettering the health of our planet and our region’s economic future at the same time.

Most significant, Binghamton is producing alumni continuing their research and becoming entrepreneurs, often locally, as well as inspiring smart energy start-ups to set up shop nearby. One of the most promising companies, C4V, began in an incubator at Binghamton’s Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and has Whittingham as an advisor.

“What C4V and maybe a dozen battery companies within 100 miles of Binghamton are doing is very exciting,” he says. “I think we can and need to reinvest in this region to make it the clean energy capital of New York State, and then the United States.”

To have a conversation about investing in Smart Energy projects at Binghamton, please contact Rebecca Benner, Campaign Director and Associate Vice President for Advancement, rbenner@binghamton.edu.